Wreaths Across America at Mount Moriah Cemetery

Photograph from Wreaths Across America Website

Historic Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia (incorporated in 1855), has been through some very rough times.  Over the past several decades, the grounds were neglected, used as a dumping ground, and almost forgotten. Since 2011, the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. have been working hard with the help of an army of volunteers to preserve and restore the grounds, educate the public, and assist numerous families in locating the graves of their loved ones.

Naval Asylum Plot, Mount Moriah Cemetery

This 2015 holiday season we want to honor those who helped build this great nation by placing a wreath on every grave in the Soldiers Plot, Naval Asylum Plot, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion (MOLLUS) Plot.

Wreath program description:

“December 13, 2008 was unanimously voted by the US Congress as “Wreaths Across America Day.” - http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/about/

From the Wreaths Across America website:

“In 2014, Wreaths Across America and our national network of volunteers laid over 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the United States and beyond. We were able to include ceremonies at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, as well as Bunker Hill, Valley Forge and the sites if the September 11 tragedies. We accomplished this with help from 2047 fundraising groups, corporate contributions, and donations of trucking, shipping, and thousands of helping hands.  Our goal of covering Arlington National Cemetery was accomplished in 2014 with the placement of 226,525 wreaths.“

Civil War Soldiers' Plot, Mount Moriah Cemetery

On a local note, The Soldiers Plot at Mount Moriah is located on the Philadelphia side of the cemetery and is the final resting place for more than 400 Civil War Soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice.  The Naval Asylum Plot is located on the Yeadon side of the cemetery and is the final resting place of more than 2,200 Navy and Marine veterans, some of whom go back to the earliest periods of our nation's history.  The cemetery has 23 Medal of Honor recipients with 15 being interred in the Naval Asylum Plot (one of whom is a double recipient). 

"The Silent Sentry"

The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. will also be honoring those who are interred within the Military Order of the Loyal Legion (MOLLUS) Plot (Yeadon side near Naval Asylum). Within this plot there are 96 soldiers who fought for freedom and who either died violently in America's bloodiest war or, as in other veterans’ cemeteries, survived to live out their lives in peace before being buried in this Civil War Veteran's plot of ground. (Photo at left shows statue that originally stood guard over MOLLUS Plot.)

More information on these sections and the cemetery as a whole can be found on the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery's website which is located at www.fommci.org.

Young researchers in the Naval Asylum Plot, Mount Moriah Cemetery

Please help us honor the true American heroes at Philadelphia/Yeadon’s Mount Moriah Cemetery by helping us place a wreath on each of these 2,800 graves. We are working with Wreaths Across America to accomplish this goal. This is the same organization that delivers wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery every year. It is estimated that there are over 5,000 veterans throughout the cemetery.  It is our goal to honor all of them with a wreath in the future. This year we will start by honoring those in the Naval Asylum Plot, Soldiers Plot, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion (MOLLUS) plot.

Help us honor those who gave so much and support the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery at the same time.

Sponsor a Wreath, Donate Here:

PA0141P- Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery Inc. Donation Form 

Image from Wreaths Across America Website

The mission of Wreaths Across America:

“Our mission, Remember, Honor, Teach, is carried out in part by coordinating wreath laying ceremonies a specified Saturday in December at Arlington [National Cemetery], as well as veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. We also organize a week of events including international veteran’s tributes, ceremonies at State Houses and a week-long “Veteran’s Parade” between Maine and Virginia where we stop along the way to spread our message about the importance of remembering our fallen heroes, honoring those who serve, and teaching our children about the sacrifices made by veterans and their families to preserve our freedoms.” - See more at: http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/about/#sthash.j7WqVfs6.dpuf

"WAA is committed to teaching younger generations about the value of their freedoms, and the importance of honoring those who sacrificed so much to protect those freedoms. We offer learning tools, interactive media projects, and opportunities for youth groups to participate in our events. We also work to create opportunities to connect “the Greatest Generation” with the “Generation of Hope”. The inspirational stories of our World War II Veterans must be passed on to the leaders of the future." - See more at: http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/about/history/#sthash.nKn89IMv.dpuf

 

Reenactors in Naval Asylum Plot, Mount Moriah Cemetery

The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Mount Moriah Cemetery by honoring the memory of those interred here through community engagement, education, historic research, and restoration.

Sponsor a Wreath, Donate Here:

PA0141P- Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery Inc. Donation Form 

Disclaimer: Most of what you have read above is either from the Wreaths Across America website or the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. page on the Wreaths Across America website. Except for those indicated, the photographs were made by Ed Snyder. Thanks as always to the indefatigable Ken Smith of the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. for his mighty efforts.

Live Video Streaming from Andy Warhol's Grave

Andy Warhol has a hard time staying dead. In fact, it has been almost thirty years since he passed on (in 1987) to that great celeb party in the sky. Warhol is even more popular now than he was when he walked the earth with his tape recorder and Polaroid camera. These days, he is certainly more widely known and appreciated. His art is fabulous, of course, but it his IDEAS that continue to inspire. Such is the case with the “Figment” project.

I assume some cemeteries have video surveillance for security reasons. St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in the Bethel Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh’s south hills has it for another reason – to create art. And if you visit, you can easily get your fifteen minutes of fame, as Warhol once quipped about the future.

Two years ago today, on August 6, 2013 (in honor of Andy’s birthday), The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in conjunction with EarthCam, “launched a collaborative project titled Figment, a live feed of Warhol’s gravesite. This live feed, viewable 24 hours a day, seven days a week worldwide is available … “ at this link.

“I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, and everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say 'figment.'” -  Andy Warhol (http://www.warhol.org/figment)

Rubbing of Andy Warhol's headstone

Andy’s headstone is in fact not blank, as you can see in these photographs I made in the cemetery during my visit on July 22, 2015. And speaking of the inscription – and this is kind of a bizarre coincidence – I purchased a framed rubbing of his headstone engraving at a thrift shop a few years ago. I knew it was authentic, as I had visited Warhol’s grave site back in 2000, and recognized the design.

St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery is in a blue collar neighborhood, a smallish cemetery on a pronounced hillside. The headstones are plain, the statuary meager. I could not remember where Warhol’s grave was, since it been many years since my last visit. On driving up the hill past the gatehouse and the BVM adorned with a spray of fresh flowers, I instantly saw the utility pole with two video cameras mounted to it. Ah, simply follow the line of sight and I should find the grave. There is was, Campbell’s Tomato Soup cans and all, about a hundred feet from the pole.

Webcams trained on Andy Warhol's grave

There are two video cameras (it seems from the live Internet link) so one can provide the long view of the grave site and the other a zoomed-in view. You may notice the “Warhola” family grave marker behind Andy’s in the photo below. His parents Andrew and Julia are buried there behind him; Warhola was Andy’s real last name (he dropped the final “a”). Besides live video, an interesting thing about the EarthCam website is that periodically, webcam still images are posted in the archive for everyone’s enjoyment! These are labeled with time and date.

I checked the time I was there a few days after my visit on July 22, 2015 (2 pm), to see if there were any images of me in the archive hanging a found rosary around the Coca-Cola bottle at the top of Andy’s headstone. (You can see the rosary in the top photo; Andy was quite religious, believe it or not!) 

Alas, my visit apparently was not as noteworthy as some others, for I am not archived in the EarthCam Hall of Fame. We do see recent images of, for instance, a bunny visiting the gravesite, as well as an Elvis impersonator. I can see how Elvis could easily have been chosen over me, but … a rabbit?  I did notice in scenes after my visit that someone moved my rosary from the Coke bottle to one of the Campbell’s soup cans – maybe it was the Elvis impersonator. I like to think that I helped create new Pop Art.

There is also a plastic file folder in front of Warhol’s headstone in which you can “write a note to Andy.” This is part of artist Madelyn Roehrig’s ongoing art project “Figments: Conversations with Andy.” Roehrig publishes them on the Facebook site “Conversations With Andy.” I would highly recommend checking this page a few times on Andy’s birthday – August 6 – to see what sort of craziness Andy’s fans may be up to. The EarthCam site should also be vibrant with ceremony. You can view the live feed here:

 Clink link for EarthCam Live Feed: "The Warhol Cams"

“I met Andy at a dinner and we discussed the culture of fame and television. I believe he would have been intrigued with using a live webcam to make art,” said Brian Cury, CEO and Founder of EarthCam. - http://www.warhol.org/figment/

So if you are interested in your own your fifteen minutes of fame, consider a visit to Warhol's grave in St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Bethel Park neighborhood.

References and Further Reading:

Andy Warhol’s Grave Facebook page

https://twitter.com/TheWarholMuseum